Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Thrifting anyone?

Garage sale season has started hot and heavy here, and we're taking advantage. We prefer estate sales and moving sales for a few reasons. We don't have to deal with looking through tons of baby stuff and clothes (the clothes at estate sales are usually fun to look at, actually), and there is a much greater chance of good furniture. Prices are generally a little higher, but you get what you pay for.

In the past couple of weeks, we've made some great small purchases. No furniture, although we found some awesome mid-century chairs at one sale. Too bad they were already sold.

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The painting is from 79 and cost us $15. We dropped it off to be framed last week, and chose a flat front white frame. I can't wait to get it back and figure out where to put it.

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I also couldn't resist the little troll like dude in the brown frame for around $7. We didn't notice a $2.99 written on the back in pencil before we bought it, so we definitely overpaid, but I love it $7 worth, so that's what matters, right?

At the same sale, I also got two enamel bangles and we picked up a Mark Twain paperback.

Then last week, we found a couple of moving sales with great sales.

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I got this little horse for $1 to add to our menagerie.

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And his friend the donkey, also a dollar. At the same sale, I got an old sil scarf for a buck.

Then we found a sale with all the books you could carry for a dollar, and took great advantage. I don't know how many we ended up with. But it was a LOT.

I'm excited to see more sales as the season goes on. And maybe find some dining furniture!

Speaking of dining furniture and thrifting, I'm still looking for inspiration.

I was kind of inspired by today's outfit.



I love turquoise and red. And I loved the way my brown work bag and gray purse worked with the color combo. So I wondered if a deep, deep teal or turquoise could work on the china cabinet.

But dude, I'm trying to tone this thing down. Turquoise is crazy right?

When I use a picture of the china cabinet in the Sherwin Williams color visualizer, the answer is a resounding YES. It looks awful. I am not thinking the color of my sweater of course. I am thinking a teal so dark it's almost black. But that's hard to do right. And if I pick that, I have no CLUE what to use in the back.

But I'm kind of loving this paper for the back.



I think it would look fab with the white chine in front. But Brett is unsure about painting it black. It's a hard decision. I don't want to mess it up again!

The shoes I'm wearing in the above picture were part of my Valentine's Day present from Brett. I LOVE them! My Toms collection is starting to get a little out of hand. We did Valentine's a little late due to work/travel/schedule, but it was worth the wait.

Other than that, as usual, we went with home related gifts.

I also got this bookend from the new CB2 Spring collection (LOVE!)

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So we rearranged our books a bit. It really makes me smile!

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Even before we did gifts though, when I got back from my work trip I found these on the kitchen counter. Even though I wouldn't see Brett for a few more days, it was nice to know he was thinking of me in the middle of the week.

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Side note, I am falling in love with our kitchen all over again lately. Especially on days when it's really functioning and then it's clean, but the light that we get on weekend afternoons just makes me want to hang out in there.

For Brett, I got a print framed that I knew he would like. He collects Legos, new and vintage, and we display some of them in the office. So I thought he would like this print to tie that in. I really love it too, actually!

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We moved the concert poster that was here, but ti's still in the room.

We also framed the card I gave him because we both liked it so much, and hung it in the stairway.

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Which I also realized I never posted about. We've started hanging photos/prints/whatever in the stairway in black gallery frames. The plan is to eventually have the entire wall just covered with frames and stuff.

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Hey look, we still have to figure out how to cut in up there!

It's going to be a slow process but we really like it so far!